Part 1 of 8 – What is Sin?

I think one of the greatest wrongs that we as Christians do is to tell people how they must repent and accept Jesus in their lives but we never really get to tell them what they must repent from and why. I want to correct that and I am simply going to talk about the very thing that seperated us from God and continues to do that even today. Sin.

I will be attempting to answer 8 important questions about sin in my opinion, which I beleive will indicate to non believers why they need to repent and accept Jesus in their hearts. I ask God our father to guide me and give me strength and wisdom to relay this message in the way that would only glorify him, I ask this in Jesus name, amen.

The questions I will attempt to answer are:

1. What is sin?

2. Where did sin originate?

3. How did we as human beings know of sin and got involved with sin?

4. What fuels sin or what does sin need to survive?

5. Are we as human beings sinners?

6. Where does sin reside in us?

7. What are the consequences of sin?

8. How do sinners behave?

1. What is Sin

The actual definition of the word sin in Hebrew and Greek, meaning in both the old and the new testaments is the word meaning to miss the set mark or to fall short of a set mark. So when we say that a person has sinned, we simply mean that he has missed or fell short of the mark that was set. When we say that a person is a sinner, we mean that a person continuously misses or falls short of the mark. The writer of 1 John, whom everyone accepted to be John the disciple and apostle defines sin as lawlessness. In the New Testament, this word lawlessness, is used mostly to indicate a violation of the law rather than the absense of the law. John refers to the violation of the law of God.

1 John 3:4 (ESVST)

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

Looking at the same verse in the new living translation it reads:

1 John 3:4 (NLTse)

Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God.

I think this is the best translation of the verse from the Greek language. What John is saying here is that sin is missing the mark set by God through the law or falling short of the mark set by God through the law. God has set a standard for holiness that he is willing to accept and that standard is the law that he gave us through the Prophets, Moses and through our Lord Jesus Christ. God said that we must be holy as he is holy and that is the mark that he has set for us. God used the law in order to guide us in achieving the standard of holiness that he will accept.

Therefore, to sin means to miss or to fail to achieve God’s required standard of holiness. This is the mark that God has set for us and if we sin, we miss or fail to reach this mark.

James says in James 4:17 that if you know what the right thing to do is and you don’t do it, that is sin

James 4:17 (ESVST)

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

It makes sense does it not. You know what the standard of holiness required by God is and yet you don’t achieve it, it is sin.

God has set us the mark of the standard of holiness that we need to achieve and he expects us to achieve it. Not achieving this standard of holiness is missing the mark set by God. If you miss it once, you have sinned. If you continuously miss it, you are a sinner. God used the law to clearly show us and guide us as to exactly what standard of holiness God expects from us. If you comply with the law of God 100%, then you have achieved the standard of holiness required by God. God expects a 100% compliance rate. God says if we break just one of the laws, we have broken all of them.

James 2:10 (NLTse)

For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws.

So, you can only get 0% or 100%. There is no middle ground here.

Now we know that sin in the eyes of God is a failure to achieve 100% of the standard of holiness set by God. This means a failure to archive 100% compliance to all his laws. The laws of God includes the Ten Commandments and all other laws that are found in the bible. The bible as the very word of God, contains the standard of holiness required by God given through the law and how to achieve it.

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